


New Horizons

by Katarable



Series: Agnus Dei [4]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Armitage Hux is Not Nice, Darth Tantrum and his Evil Space Ginger, Force Bond (Star Wars), Force-Sensitive Armitage Hux, Hux is Palpatine's grandson, Kylo Ren is Not Nice, M/M, Meditation, Telepathy, The Force, The Force Ships It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-17
Updated: 2020-01-17
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:33:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22292632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katarable/pseuds/Katarable
Summary: “This was where he’d kept it. Fitting. Hux had tried to run from the Force for decades. He’d kept it buried beneath the floorboards of his mind next to the bodies he’s buried over the decades.Kylo couldn’t judge him, though. He had bodies there too.”Hux and Kylo have their first training session together as master and apprentice.
Relationships: Armitage Hux/Kylo Ren, Phasma & Kylo Ren
Series: Agnus Dei [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/894033
Comments: 3
Kudos: 67





	New Horizons

**Author's Note:**

> Text in italics indicates internal thoughts/voices.  
> Text in italics with guillemets (« ») indicates dialogue spoken through the Force/telepathy.

Kylo had been in hundreds of minds.

  
They never looked like much at first. The closest comparison was an empty room. What mattered was the way it was built. Snoke’s was an ancient mind, filled with winding paths and whispers in long-dead languages. There were halls he’d walked before and halls he’d never been, and the Force lay at the end of each. The scavenger girl’s mind was a scattered collection of odds and ends. The Force was all around him, thrumming behind dreams of a family and visions of an island in the ocean.

  
A scavenger with all that power. What a waste.

  
Hux’s mind was…well, he couldn’t say. He couldn’t enter it.

  
They were sitting on the floor barefoot and dressed in sweats. Kylo wished he was wearing his mask; he hated anyone seeing his face, and usually he’d wipe their memory if they did. But Hux was Kylo’s apprentice now. An apprentice had to know the face of his master.

  
He also had to let his master inside his damn head.

  
“Well? Is it working?” The General asked.

  
“No. You need to let me in.”

  
Hux opened his eyes to glare at the man across from him. “I’m doing everything right, aren’t I? Just do it. You do this practically every day, I don’t see why you’re being so careful about it, typical of you—”

  
“You’re deflecting.”

  
Hux pursed his lips.

  
“I’m trying to enter your mindscape through meditation, not extract information from you or torture you. There’s a world of difference. If I wanted to get into your head on a surface level I easily could.”

  
“Tell that to the scavenger.”

  
“That was different. She didn’t block me, she fired back.”

  
Hux snickered. “And you weren’t strong enough to beat her.”

  
_“Hux.”_ Kylo sighed and cracked his knuckles. Losing his temper would do him no good. “You’re using the Force to block me. It’s probably subconscious, but you really have to let me in, otherwise we can’t move forward with your training.” Kylo moved close enough that their knees touched. “Maybe we should start out with some discussion. How did you do it?”

  
“What?”

  
“You read me the night before I left. How?”

  
“I don’t know. I just felt things. Then I just knew your name somehow.”

  
_Ben Solo is not my name,_ Kylo thought. “What were you feeling?”

  
“Anger. Frustration. Annoyance. Disdain. I could go all day, Ren.” The heel of Hux’s hand pressed against his forehead. “There was so much weighing on me and you were acting so obtuse. I was so _angry,_ I wanted to…”

  
What?”

  
Hux didn’t reply.

  
Taking off the mask wasn’t enough. He had to be even more vulnerable. Kylo closed his eyes, and began to speak through the Force.

_  
«Put your hand on my neck.»_

  
It only took a moment for Hux’s hand to take hold of Kylo’s throat.

_  
«What did you want to do to me that night?»_

  
Hux’s hand was softer than Kylo imagined. The voice that replied in his head was just as soft.

_  
«Hurt you. I wanted to hurt you.»_

  
He could do it so easily.

_  
«Do you want to hurt me now?»_

  
The General’s thumb brushed Kylo’s Adam’s apple. _«No.»_

  
A door swung open.

_  
Finally._

* * *

Hux’s mind was indeed an empty room. It didn’t feel empty, though. It felt like home somehow; as if he was finally in a place that he’d been destined to go. The thought wasn’t meant for him, but as he walked behind him Kylo could hear Hux thinking _this feels right._

  
It did.

  
“So…can I just talk to you?”

  
“Oh. Yes. Force users can talk out loud to each other like this. And sometimes through Force bonds, but those are rare.”

  
“Alright then. What now?”

  
“You’ve been suppressing the Force for a long time, right?”

  
Kylo could sense Hux’s urge to deflect. Fortunately he seemed to realize that wasn’t a good idea. “All my life.”

  
“So now our goal is to figure out where you’ve been keeping it and set it free.”

  
“We’re treasure hunting then?”

  
Ha. General Hux had a sense of humor, who knew. “I guess you could say that. But looking for things won’t help. It’s a feeling. When we feel it we’ve found it.”

  
They kept walking for several minutes in silence. But the silence felt as right as being here did. This was what the Force wanted. Fate had set aside a place for Kylo Ren in his apprentice’s being.  Maybe there was more between them than master and apprentice.

  
At that moment, Kylo felt it: a vibration pounding beneath his feet.

  
This was where he’d kept it. Fitting. Hux had tried to run from the Force for decades. He’d kept it buried beneath the floorboards of his mind next to the bodies he’s buried over the decades.

  
Kylo couldn’t judge him, though. He had bodies there too.

  
The vibrations grew stronger with every step Kylo took. Yes, this was definitely the Force. “I can feel the Force,” Kylo said. “Can you?”

  
“Yes,” Hux replied. He stopped and spun around to face his master with eyes that seemed to glow.

  
Kylo extended a hand to him. “It wants to get out.”

  
Hux smiled in the dark. “It will.”

  
An electric shock hit Kylo’s body when Hux took his hand.

  
Dark eyes snapped open to meet green ones. They had left Hux’s mind, but Kylo could still feel the shock in his chest. What was that? He looked at his hand. The tips of his fingers were singed angry red.

  
“Ren, what happened? Did it work?”

_  
Burns. There are burns on my hand._

  
Kylo cleared his throat. “Yes. You did very well.”

_  
Like being struck by lightning._

  
“Oh. Good,” Hux said.

  
“Really, Hux. I’m impressed. Tomorrow we’ll try this again. You’re excused.”

  
Hux nodded and pulled on his shoes, heading to the door.

  
“Wait.”

  
Hux froze.

  
“The night your sensitivity woke, you told me my old name. Tell me yours.”

  
Kylo knew Hux’s name. Everyone did. But he needed to hear Hux say it. 

  
“Armitage. My name is Armitage.”

  
“You’re excused, Armitage.”

  
“Thank you, Kylo.”

* * *

“This is Kylo Ren paging Captain Phasma.”

  
“This is Phasma,” came the reply over the comm.

  
“I’d like to speak to you in person tomorrow regarding an urgent request. I’m available any time before 1700 hours.”

  
“Certainly, sir. I’ll be in touch tomorrow morning.”

  
“Thank you. Glory to the Order.”

  
“Same to you.” Then the line went dead.

  
Kylo had always considered Hux a colleague at best and an enemy at worst. He considered Phasma something closer to a friend. She was loyal and brutal, and working with her was always either enlightening or easy. Of course Hux would be the ideal candidate, but now that he and Kylo would be prioritizing training, they’d need someone else to oversee base reconstruction. She wouldn’t be responsible for any major decisions, just for keeping an eye on the team as they began working.

  
Perfect. Everything that had to be done today had gotten done. All that was left to do was take a shower and speak to Snoke the next day and get some answers. He took his time with a shower tonight, spending several minutes standing perfectly still under the spigot. His fingertips had faded to white by now; the burn could become another scar. It stung to hold his hand in the cold water, but he held fast through the pain, like always, remembering what Snoke told him so long ago.

  
_Water and the Force are alike. It is the most basic component of all of us. it is everywhere at once. People think that the Dark Side is dirty water. Polluted. Unclean. They are wrong. We are the pure. We do not deny our emotion, nor do we constantly suppress our potential. Drink, Kylo Ren._

  
The scar was the one thing Kylo didn’t try to wash away. He had been weak. He had failed.

  
At least he could see to it that Hux would never know such failure.

  
He didn’t bother drying off completely before changing, and he didn’t put any of the bacta cream on his face either. He was tired and worn down and wanted nothing more than some peace and quiet. 

  
Peace and quiet never came. Only a soft “Ren.”

  
What…

  
“Ren.”

  
Hux stood behind him. No, not really. He wasn’t in Kylo’s quarters. When Kylo looked at him all he could see was Hux.

  
Was this a dream? It didn’t feel like one. He could see him. He was _there._

  
He stepped forward. This couldn’t be a dream. Kylo could _smell_ him. He could hear him breathing. He could see the strands of gold in his hair, the bitten skin of his lips, the fallen eyelash on his cheek. He could reach out…touch it…

  
Hux jerked away from his touch and he was gone.

  
Kylo frowned. Perhaps he was just thinking of Hux more after a day with him. It was time to sleep. Better to deal with all this in the morning.

  
He got into bed and blew away the pale eyelash resting on his burned finger.

  
There was definitely more between them than master and apprentice.

**Author's Note:**

> WE’RE BACK IN BUSINESS BOYS. And not long after TROS! My rage has cooled quite a bit but…I did not like it. That’s of no consequence though, we don’t know canon here.  
> TLJ and TROS are dead to me but I really like how they handle Force bonds and how they physically manifest. I’ve tried to integrate that here without losing sight of the metaphysical (voices, visions, etc.) Hope I succeeded.  
> Also new formatting system! I’m a hoe for italics, so those are still in use, but thought the guillemets might help distinguish actual conversations that take place through the Force. If you see any dialogue with those, assume the people speaking are using the Force to speak.  
> \-------  
> Thank you for reading this. Comments and kudos water my crops!  
> Yell at me on [tumblr](https://kataruhh.tumblr.com)


End file.
